F1: Button says summer break will help McLaren

Jenson Button says the upcoming four-week break between grands prix will prove useful for McLaren-Honda as it bids to turn its Formula 1 fortunes around.

Poor reliability has hampered the alliance's rate of development while the loss of track time and high penalty count for exceeding its power unit allocation has contributed to the team scoring only five points so far. But Button is hopeful McLaren can use the time after the Hungarian Grand Prix, of which includes a two-week mandatory factory shutdown, to analyze data gathered on its recent chassis upgrade among other things.

"Most of the correlation from the wind tunnel to CFD and reality is good so it's not a problem that we won't be racing," Button told AUTOSPORT. "It is actually useful having that time with everyone back at factory as we will have a lot of information from the races before that which is useful to go through.

"We have a two-week break in August where we can't do anything, but there is still a lot of time for us to look at the new package and analyze it. I hope it's the correct direction and we can keep adding that."

Button admits that this season has been a difficult one but he refused to be downbeat about the team's current plight.

"We all fight to keep the smile," he said. "It's a difficult position for all of us.

"I have really crappy days, like all of us, and moments I'm not happy – and after qualifying at Silverstone was one of them. There's no point being down now, because that's not going to help us improve. So it's about giving good feedback and trying to make the most of every situation. Smiling's better than frowning!"

Originally on Autosport.com